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The Party Wall
Selected for Indies Introduce Summer/Fall 2016
Catherine Leroux's first novel, translated into English brilliantly by Lazer Lederhendler, ties together stories about siblings joined in surprising ways. A woman learns that she absorbed her twin sister's body in the womb and that she has two sets of DNA; a girl in the deep South pushes her sister out of the way of a speeding train, losing her legs; and a political couple learn that they are non-identical twins separated at birth. The Party Wall establishes Leroux as one of North America's most intelligent and innovative young authors.
Catherine Leroux's first novel, translated into English brilliantly by Lazer Lederhendler, ties together stories about siblings joined in surprising ways. A woman learns that she absorbed her twin sister's body in the womb and that she has two sets of DNA; a girl in the deep South pushes her sister out of the way of a speeding train, losing her legs; and a political couple learn that they are non-identical twins separated at birth. The Party Wall establishes Leroux as one of North America's most intelligent and innovative young authors.
246 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 2016
33 people are currently reading
1071 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Leroux
20 books129 followersCatherine Leroux est née en 1979 non loin de Montréal, où elle vit aujourd’hui avec un chat et quelques humains. Elle a été caissière, téléphoniste, barmaid, commis de bibliothèque. Elle a enseigné, fait la grève, vendu du chocolat, étudié la philosophie et nourri des moutons puis elle est devenue journaliste avant, de publier La marche en forêt. Finaliste au Prix des libraires du Québec, ce roman d’une grande humanité a charmé le public et la critique. Le mur mitoyen est son second roman.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
October 20, 2016
Family ties are a matter of biography and not biology.
The Party Wall is one of those books that works best if you go into it absolutely cold, with no idea what it might be about. As a result, I don't know what to say that wouldn't serve as a spoiler. I will say that, just by glancing at the book's table of contents, one will note that it is broken up into sections which focus on two characters each: three sets of the characters having two long chapters each, and one set of characters having seven interspersed short chapters. All together this does form one cohesive novel, although it does take a while to work out the timeline and the ways in which the various stories connect (one set of chapters is in a futuristic Canada with a Labour Party in power and a Saskatchewan made unrecognisable by climate change). I enjoyed the writing in this book very much, and insofar as the narrative is like a puzzle to solve, it was a rewarding read.
Angie is nine years old and as gnarled as a crone. She resembles the pine trees growing on mountaintops. The shape of her fingers and toes is complicated, and her elbows protrude from the middle of her spindly arms, two black pearls mounted on taut wires. She dreads the day her breasts will appear, convinced as she is that they will emerge, not like the pretty apples flaunted by the girls in junior high, but like two angular bumps, two angry fists pounding their way through her chest.
The Party Wall examines families and how they are defined (and not incidentally, the three long-chaptered storylines each feature a nasty but beloved cat: Shabby, Wretch, and Bastard). We meet twins and siblings and widows and single mothers; soulmates and estrangements; petty revenge and karmic justice. Throughout, there is much made of twinning and dual natures:
The world is an unjust place where the good go bad from never being rewarded, where the truly wicked are very rarely punished and where most folk zigzag between the two extremes, neither saints nor demons, tacking between heartache and joy, their fingers crossed, knocking on wood. Every person split in two, each with a fault around which good and evil spin.
There's really not much more I'd want to say for fear of spoiling this reading experience for someone. As I enjoyed the writing so much, I should acknowledge that author Catherine Leroux was ably translated into English by Lazer Lederhendler (but I was left wondering at strange typos like the marathoner and her “carrier in sports”). I'm delighted that The Party Wall is on the shortlist for the Giller Prize this year; it could definitely take it.
September 5, 2016
Lecteur, lectrice, sois patient.e. Accepte de prendre le bout de laine que l'auteure place entre tes doigts et laisse-la dérouler son écheveau. Fais-lui confiance. Parce quand tu réaliseras la subtilité de ce qu'elle est en train de tricoter, tu réaliseras que que cette auteure est douée pour écrire l'universel et le plus grand que soi. Celui-là, je le suggérerais à celui ou celle qui aime les histoires où il n'y a pas de hasard.
September 6, 2016
I'm sorry, I just didn't like it. In fact, it got worse and worse and worse.
I don't remember where I got the recommendation to read this book, but I was excited to buy it new, get it into my hands.
And then it just got stranger and stranger with each progressive page. I found the whole novel (?), collection (?) cold, odd, and even creepy. It completely failed to suck me in and get me invested. There were parts that were like a train wreck -- literally and figuratively -- and so yes, I kept reading. But I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend.
Maybe I'm missing something artsy, but in any case, I'm glad it's over.
I don't remember where I got the recommendation to read this book, but I was excited to buy it new, get it into my hands.
And then it just got stranger and stranger with each progressive page. I found the whole novel (?), collection (?) cold, odd, and even creepy. It completely failed to suck me in and get me invested. There were parts that were like a train wreck -- literally and figuratively -- and so yes, I kept reading. But I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't recommend.
Maybe I'm missing something artsy, but in any case, I'm glad it's over.
February 22, 2018
Fascinating concepts (a pair of twins is adopted separately and unknowingly end up marrying each other; a mother discovers she doesn't have the same DNA as the son she gave birth to) but this never really grabbed me. I think the characterization is lacking.
Also, the voice felt cold and removed. It's interesting to wonder if this is an effect of the French to English translation or if this is an accurate representation of her French prose, but as far as my experience goes it doesn't really matter. The author has a background in journalism and it shows; this just didn't feel like *fiction*. Indeed her note says these situations are taken from real life.
I also was puzzled by the choice to break up what are essentially short stories with tenuous connections to each other, intersperse them, and call them a novel instead of just presenting them whole and calling this what it is, a short story collection. It made for confusing reading for me and didn't add anything.
Also, the voice felt cold and removed. It's interesting to wonder if this is an effect of the French to English translation or if this is an accurate representation of her French prose, but as far as my experience goes it doesn't really matter. The author has a background in journalism and it shows; this just didn't feel like *fiction*. Indeed her note says these situations are taken from real life.
I also was puzzled by the choice to break up what are essentially short stories with tenuous connections to each other, intersperse them, and call them a novel instead of just presenting them whole and calling this what it is, a short story collection. It made for confusing reading for me and didn't add anything.
March 13, 2024
Love isn't a momentary thing. It's something that has always existed deep inside us and that rises to the surface when we summon it. Like a permanence of being. p75
Every person split in two, each with a fault around which good and evil spin. p153
Presented in segments, loosely connected by a restrained lyricism that reassures a bewildered reader to carry on until it all begins to make some kind of sense.
The world is an unjust place where the good go bad from never being rewarded, where the truly wicked are rarely punished and when most folks zigzag between the two extremes. p153
This short novel plunges into the extremes, exposing the identities hidden beneath the taken for granted. The surprising theme that emerges is the commonplace rendered profound: everything is connected.
An afterward allows that the characters are based on real people. Certainly the issues that they faced are still relevant.
Every person split in two, each with a fault around which good and evil spin. p153
Presented in segments, loosely connected by a restrained lyricism that reassures a bewildered reader to carry on until it all begins to make some kind of sense.
The world is an unjust place where the good go bad from never being rewarded, where the truly wicked are rarely punished and when most folks zigzag between the two extremes. p153
This short novel plunges into the extremes, exposing the identities hidden beneath the taken for granted. The surprising theme that emerges is the commonplace rendered profound: everything is connected.
An afterward allows that the characters are based on real people. Certainly the issues that they faced are still relevant.
April 7, 2019
I liked how seemingly separate, different characters were all interconnected. That's life, we all brush on each-other's lives one way or the other
August 31, 2021
4,5 - quel beau et bon livre! Chaque histoire est bien construite afin de conserver l’intérêt tout au long de la lecture. J’ai aimé que le style varie un peu d’une histoire; ça créait un bon rythme et des univers propres à chaque récit tout en donnant l’impression qu’il y avait un fil conducteur. Ce dernier se dévoile finement et délicatement. Ça donne le goût de lire d’autres livres de l’autrice!
July 31, 2017
While The Party Wall is marketed as a debut fiction by author Catherine Leroux, it seems to be a collection of short stories. The reviews I read were mixed and the ratings ran the gamut from 1 star to 5 stars from Goodreads’ readers I follow and whose opinions I respect. I wasn’t sure what to expect but my interest was piqued and I began to read in the very best way – with absolutely zero expectations.
I enjoyed The Party Wall. I thought the writing was fresh, crisp and filled with great feeling, nuances and observations that would only be apparent to a skilled watcher and well expressed by a good writer. There are stories about 4 different pairs. 3 pairs appear in only 2 chapters each while another pair appears in 7 chapters – the first, the last and in between all the other chapters. Each pair shares their story within its own pairing and in the end; all the dots and couples are connected and brought together in a surprising, fascinating and realistic manner. From this perspective, I can see why it’s been marketed as a novel of fiction but I expect most readers will still consider it a linked short story collection.
The category labelling isn’t really important. What you need to know is that Leroux’ writing is top-notch, captivating and creative and this book has a storyline that engaged me from the onset.
The Party Wall was originally published in French as Le mur mitoyen. It was a finalist for the 2013 Grand prix du livre de Montréal and won the Prix littéraire France-Québec in 2014. It was translated into English by Lazer Lederhendler as The Party Wall. In 2016, besides being short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, it won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation.
Here’s one short example of her writing:
P. 70 “A muffled noise ripples down from the second floor. Among other fabulous qualities, Marie’s feet, when moving over a wooden floor, have the ability to produce the sound of a brush on raw canvas. The note whispered at the beginning of the world. He listens to the delicate rhythm approaching until it sweeps down on him.”
There is a lot of lightness in the stories, mostly the positive human emotions of love, tenderness, friendship, family and community. There is also darkness in these same stories. We experience the unpleasant side of humans, who judge, bully, murder, shame and expose. We encounter people who hold no space in their hearts for anyone who crosses the line of their rules and expectations of society. The lack of humanity was at times gut-wrenching; but offset most times by incredible love that surpasses all and knows no bounds.
Leroux kept my attention throughout. While very literary in her writing style, her stories and imaginings are mesmerizing. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how the story of each character would unfold. There were many surprises and constant reasons for me to stop and reflect. The storylines raise a number of important ethical and philosophical topics that we don’t often consider, or at least I had not thought about recently. I found myself constantly wondering what I would choose or how I would act in the same circumstances, whether the incident was happening directly to me or I was a bystander who became aware of the situation.
As Leroux has written – the truth can be much more fascinating than fiction and The Party Wall shows us how true this is. Despite the disparate stories, there is a common thread of connection between the couples (sister and sister, lover and lover, self and self, brother and sister and everyone they meet.) Leroux very skilfully shows us that each member of the couple is connected to the other member of the pair; but also that all the couples are connected to the other couples. Some may think the ending is too neat and predictable. I was taken aback and thought that the ending was incredibly brilliant and skilfully written. There were no loose ends and a very strong message in all the stories of humanity’s interconnectedness and our dependency on each other.
In an article from Le Devoir on September 26, 2015 translated from French into English, Associate Danielle Laurin quotes Catherine Leroux about where she gets ideas for her books. Leroux indicated, “My inspiration comes from the fascination I have for the complexity, the diversity of human experience. And its exceptions especially. Its rarities, its extremes.”
I recommend that you read The Party Wall and see where Leroux’ fascination takes you. Expect the unexpected. Expect these stories to stay with you for a while and to be absorbed into your consciousness.
It is not surprising to me that Catherine Leroux studied philosophy at the Université de Montreal based on this book. While Leroux’ writing is a bit more surreal, her writing in The Party Wall reminds me of Muriel Barbery’s writing in her globally popular literary novel - The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Barbery is also francophone and trained as a philosopher at Ecole Normale Supérieure in France. Maybe there really is something to be said for innate French sensibilité. Even if not, I’d say that Catherine Leroux is in pretty good company and has a great future ahead of her.
I enjoyed The Party Wall. I thought the writing was fresh, crisp and filled with great feeling, nuances and observations that would only be apparent to a skilled watcher and well expressed by a good writer. There are stories about 4 different pairs. 3 pairs appear in only 2 chapters each while another pair appears in 7 chapters – the first, the last and in between all the other chapters. Each pair shares their story within its own pairing and in the end; all the dots and couples are connected and brought together in a surprising, fascinating and realistic manner. From this perspective, I can see why it’s been marketed as a novel of fiction but I expect most readers will still consider it a linked short story collection.
The category labelling isn’t really important. What you need to know is that Leroux’ writing is top-notch, captivating and creative and this book has a storyline that engaged me from the onset.
The Party Wall was originally published in French as Le mur mitoyen. It was a finalist for the 2013 Grand prix du livre de Montréal and won the Prix littéraire France-Québec in 2014. It was translated into English by Lazer Lederhendler as The Party Wall. In 2016, besides being short-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, it won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation.
Here’s one short example of her writing:
P. 70 “A muffled noise ripples down from the second floor. Among other fabulous qualities, Marie’s feet, when moving over a wooden floor, have the ability to produce the sound of a brush on raw canvas. The note whispered at the beginning of the world. He listens to the delicate rhythm approaching until it sweeps down on him.”
There is a lot of lightness in the stories, mostly the positive human emotions of love, tenderness, friendship, family and community. There is also darkness in these same stories. We experience the unpleasant side of humans, who judge, bully, murder, shame and expose. We encounter people who hold no space in their hearts for anyone who crosses the line of their rules and expectations of society. The lack of humanity was at times gut-wrenching; but offset most times by incredible love that surpasses all and knows no bounds.
Leroux kept my attention throughout. While very literary in her writing style, her stories and imaginings are mesmerizing. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and how the story of each character would unfold. There were many surprises and constant reasons for me to stop and reflect. The storylines raise a number of important ethical and philosophical topics that we don’t often consider, or at least I had not thought about recently. I found myself constantly wondering what I would choose or how I would act in the same circumstances, whether the incident was happening directly to me or I was a bystander who became aware of the situation.
As Leroux has written – the truth can be much more fascinating than fiction and The Party Wall shows us how true this is. Despite the disparate stories, there is a common thread of connection between the couples (sister and sister, lover and lover, self and self, brother and sister and everyone they meet.) Leroux very skilfully shows us that each member of the couple is connected to the other member of the pair; but also that all the couples are connected to the other couples. Some may think the ending is too neat and predictable. I was taken aback and thought that the ending was incredibly brilliant and skilfully written. There were no loose ends and a very strong message in all the stories of humanity’s interconnectedness and our dependency on each other.
In an article from Le Devoir on September 26, 2015 translated from French into English, Associate Danielle Laurin quotes Catherine Leroux about where she gets ideas for her books. Leroux indicated, “My inspiration comes from the fascination I have for the complexity, the diversity of human experience. And its exceptions especially. Its rarities, its extremes.”
I recommend that you read The Party Wall and see where Leroux’ fascination takes you. Expect the unexpected. Expect these stories to stay with you for a while and to be absorbed into your consciousness.
It is not surprising to me that Catherine Leroux studied philosophy at the Université de Montreal based on this book. While Leroux’ writing is a bit more surreal, her writing in The Party Wall reminds me of Muriel Barbery’s writing in her globally popular literary novel - The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Barbery is also francophone and trained as a philosopher at Ecole Normale Supérieure in France. Maybe there really is something to be said for innate French sensibilité. Even if not, I’d say that Catherine Leroux is in pretty good company and has a great future ahead of her.
August 26, 2024
Même si je n’étais pas toujours captivée, certains passages m’ennuyaient un peu, les révélations chocs qui surgissent dans chacune des histoires me donnaient à chaque fois un nouvel élan.
Et le talent de l’autrice, je suis vraiment impressionnée. D’abord sa plume magnifique, ensuite comment elle a réussi à lier ces 4 histoires pour en faire un tout tellement original! 😮 C’est surprenant, les personnages sont envoûtants, bravo!
Et le talent de l’autrice, je suis vraiment impressionnée. D’abord sa plume magnifique, ensuite comment elle a réussi à lier ces 4 histoires pour en faire un tout tellement original! 😮 C’est surprenant, les personnages sont envoûtants, bravo!
October 24, 2016
LOVED this.
March 26, 2025
J’ai bien aimé que les différents personnages, qui ne se connaissent pas du tout, soit liés d’une certaine façon. Il y a une dimension très humaine à ce livre, avec l’introspection des personnages durant leurs moments de difficulté. C’est ce qui m’a plu au final. L’histoire avait du potentiel, mais c’était très passif.
November 5, 2016
https://ayearofbooksblog.com/2016/11/...
As the Scotiabank Giller prize announcement looms, I am still reading through the 6 short-listed books. The Party Wall is my 4th of the 6 books that I am trying to finish before the Monday November 7th announcement of the winner. It was written by Catherine Leroux in French and translated by Laser Lederhendler. This book has kept me scratching my head and puzzling over the timing and relationships of the intertwined stories of 4 sets of siblings. It is unique, complex and difficult to describe in a way that will not spoil the story for readers.
The novel alternates between 4 unique storylines which focus on family relationships including:
Madeleine and Madeleine – A mother learns more about her past and her genetics as she attempts to foster a relationship with her vagabond son who has returned home. She hosts an odd mix of characters who haphazardly arrive and stay at her home since her husband died (a storyline that could have been expanded to describe his own “colourful” past).
Monette and Angie – This storyline is the shortest and least detailed, with only a couple of pages composing each of their chapters. This section describes the two young girls on a walk to the store and how tragedy strikes on a routine, sunny day.
Mariel and Marie – This ambitious couple have climbed to the top of the political game. They are struggling with their notoriety and the media attention when they discover details about their genetic history that derail Ariel’s political future.
Carmen and Simon – They are a brother and sister raised by a singe mother. They have come together at her deathbed with questions about their father which she had always refused to answer. Following her death they learn the truth about their parentage from details written by their mother’s helper, sending their lives into chaos.
Trying to discover the links between the stories kept me engaged in the novel. I appreciated that the creative storylines were inspired by true events (which the author described at the end of the novel). I also liked the metaphor of the party wall which is described by the free dictionary as “A partition erected on a property boundary, partly on the land of one owner and partly on the land of another, to provide common support to the structures on both sides of the boundary”. Like a party wall, the relationships have common threads which link them together yet barriers that keep them apart.
What I struggled with was the timelines. As I was reading, it was not clear when events were happening yet upon learning the relationships between the stories, it was made clear that the stories were not happening simultaneously. I also didn’t appreciate the future tense of Mariel’s story with his political leanings in a future Montreal. I wonder if this is a book that would benefit a second read to pick up on the clues to relationships sooner but with such a mountainous to be read pile, this will not be a priority.
I am looking forward to hearing from Leroux at the Giller event in Toronto tomorrow and am hoping to learn more about her writing process. I would like to understand why this author had her book translated by Lederhendler when she herself has worked as a translator. It is interesting to know that she had grown up as a daughter of a librarian and had aspirations of writing since grade 2 in an article in the Montreal Gazette. How exciting it must be for Leroux to be honoured with being chosen for the Giller shortlist!
As the Scotiabank Giller prize announcement looms, I am still reading through the 6 short-listed books. The Party Wall is my 4th of the 6 books that I am trying to finish before the Monday November 7th announcement of the winner. It was written by Catherine Leroux in French and translated by Laser Lederhendler. This book has kept me scratching my head and puzzling over the timing and relationships of the intertwined stories of 4 sets of siblings. It is unique, complex and difficult to describe in a way that will not spoil the story for readers.
The novel alternates between 4 unique storylines which focus on family relationships including:
Madeleine and Madeleine – A mother learns more about her past and her genetics as she attempts to foster a relationship with her vagabond son who has returned home. She hosts an odd mix of characters who haphazardly arrive and stay at her home since her husband died (a storyline that could have been expanded to describe his own “colourful” past).
Monette and Angie – This storyline is the shortest and least detailed, with only a couple of pages composing each of their chapters. This section describes the two young girls on a walk to the store and how tragedy strikes on a routine, sunny day.
Mariel and Marie – This ambitious couple have climbed to the top of the political game. They are struggling with their notoriety and the media attention when they discover details about their genetic history that derail Ariel’s political future.
Carmen and Simon – They are a brother and sister raised by a singe mother. They have come together at her deathbed with questions about their father which she had always refused to answer. Following her death they learn the truth about their parentage from details written by their mother’s helper, sending their lives into chaos.
Trying to discover the links between the stories kept me engaged in the novel. I appreciated that the creative storylines were inspired by true events (which the author described at the end of the novel). I also liked the metaphor of the party wall which is described by the free dictionary as “A partition erected on a property boundary, partly on the land of one owner and partly on the land of another, to provide common support to the structures on both sides of the boundary”. Like a party wall, the relationships have common threads which link them together yet barriers that keep them apart.
What I struggled with was the timelines. As I was reading, it was not clear when events were happening yet upon learning the relationships between the stories, it was made clear that the stories were not happening simultaneously. I also didn’t appreciate the future tense of Mariel’s story with his political leanings in a future Montreal. I wonder if this is a book that would benefit a second read to pick up on the clues to relationships sooner but with such a mountainous to be read pile, this will not be a priority.
I am looking forward to hearing from Leroux at the Giller event in Toronto tomorrow and am hoping to learn more about her writing process. I would like to understand why this author had her book translated by Lederhendler when she herself has worked as a translator. It is interesting to know that she had grown up as a daughter of a librarian and had aspirations of writing since grade 2 in an article in the Montreal Gazette. How exciting it must be for Leroux to be honoured with being chosen for the Giller shortlist!
July 9, 2022
Un roman choral qui met en scène divers personnages plus ou moins inspirés de faits divers réels. Les thèmes abordés concernent les liens familiaux, plus particulièrement les relations fraternelles et l'adoption. Il y est aussi question de politique, de voyages et de chats!
Les liens qui unissent les différents arcs narratifs sont ténus mais solides, comme un filet de sécurité invisible qui soutiendrait l'ensemble du roman et dont les mailles subtiles ne se révéleraient qu'à la toute fin. J'ai aimé les personnages et les sujets abordés, mais j'ai surtout été impressionnée par la qualité de l'écriture. À chaque page se trouve une belle métaphore ou une pensée délicate donnant envie de s'attarder entre les lignes du texte.
Je replongerai certainement dans l'univers de cette autrice dans un avenir proche...
Visitez mon blog : https://chroniquesbookaddict.wixsite....
Suivez-moi sur Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Les-chroniqu...
Les liens qui unissent les différents arcs narratifs sont ténus mais solides, comme un filet de sécurité invisible qui soutiendrait l'ensemble du roman et dont les mailles subtiles ne se révéleraient qu'à la toute fin. J'ai aimé les personnages et les sujets abordés, mais j'ai surtout été impressionnée par la qualité de l'écriture. À chaque page se trouve une belle métaphore ou une pensée délicate donnant envie de s'attarder entre les lignes du texte.
Je replongerai certainement dans l'univers de cette autrice dans un avenir proche...
Visitez mon blog : https://chroniquesbookaddict.wixsite....
Suivez-moi sur Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Les-chroniqu...
December 19, 2019
The Party Wall initially appears to be structured like a collection of short stories, as in each chapter we are introduced to a pair of characters who share some form of connection, only to find out in a shocking twist that their relationship is not at all like what they thought it was. The first half of this novel dealing with the introduction to the characters and the plot twists was incredible; however, the second half unfortunately felt rather anticlimactic as it tried to resolve the conflicts established earlier on. The shock of the reveal ended up being more way enjoyable than the payoff of the resolution. The novel also loses power towards the end as it tries to clunkily connect all of the characters together in a way that felt a little too obvious. Though the second half didn’t work for me, I’m still glad I picked this one up because I genuinely had a lot of fun reading the first half. I’ll be curious to pick up some more Leroux in the future!
September 20, 2019
Incroyable. Quand un livre nous laisse toute aussi ébranlée 24h après avoir entamé sa lecture. Magnifique tournures de phrases. Cependant, le récit des personnages tombent facilement dans l’invraisemblable à mes yeux, créant un effet d’exagération. Ça m’empêche de m’attacher complètement aux personnages, à croire à leur mal, à leur vécu, à eux. Et j’ai également de la difficulté à saisir le lien avec le titre... ça m’égare. Malgré tout, je recommande. Excellent. Pour mes amis qui préfèrent lire en anglais, la version traduite s’intitule « The Party Wall ».
July 26, 2017
I read this books as part of my challenge to read the Giller Long List from 2016. I had no idea what the book was about prior to reading it so really, had no preconceived notions. Within the first 20 pages, I knew I was going to love this book and I did. The connections between the characters are complicated and, near the end of the book, I found myself drawing a diagram so I could visualize the connections. This book will stay with me for quite a while, I believe, as will its characters.
July 11, 2019
Four different stories, vastly different characters but curiously connected over time.
The characters are amazingly human and their problems and relationships touchingly real.
There are no happy endings, no real endings for most of the characters, just glimpses into their lives.
A fascinating and intriguing book.
The characters are amazingly human and their problems and relationships touchingly real.
There are no happy endings, no real endings for most of the characters, just glimpses into their lives.
A fascinating and intriguing book.
June 13, 2017
Inventive but disappointing for a Giller finalist. I felt the links between the stories were forced and not logical.
October 16, 2021
L’écriture est de toute beauté, les histoires sont tellement bien ficelées les unes entre les autres.
September 27, 2017
L'écriture est ce qui sauve ce roman, à mon avis. J'ai pas été impressionné par l'histoire, notamment les derniers chapitres.
August 26, 2020
This novel is told in chapters about paired characters, so it stops and starts as we leave one pair and move on to the next. There doesn't appear to be any connection between the lives so the stories are quite different which creates the effect of reading short stories of more than one chapter.
As these lives move forward, the theme of separation becomes apparent, its inherent trauma manifesting in different ways in these lives.
A mother is told she is not a biological match for her son who needs a kidney, questioning their relationship, a married couple discover a devastating fact when they seek their original birth certificates, one they will be relentlessly and mercilessly pursued for.
Siblings at their mother's deathbed learn the truth she never revealed to them in life.
And in some way none of them will ever know, but we will, there are connections, that they have been deprived of, for better or worse.
As these lives move forward, the theme of separation becomes apparent, its inherent trauma manifesting in different ways in these lives.
A mother is told she is not a biological match for her son who needs a kidney, questioning their relationship, a married couple discover a devastating fact when they seek their original birth certificates, one they will be relentlessly and mercilessly pursued for.
Siblings at their mother's deathbed learn the truth she never revealed to them in life.
And in some way none of them will ever know, but we will, there are connections, that they have been deprived of, for better or worse.
December 18, 2025
I know I’m in the minority here but wow I so did not enjoy this book, I kept pushing through in anticipation of these stories connecting but it was very anticlimactic for me. Maybe I’ll give this a 1.5, one story line I particularly enjoyed but the rest bored me to tears.
December 19, 2022
Halfway through this book I read a goodreads review that said this book is best read with no idea of what it’s about. And, having found it on our shared family kindle and liking a random page of prose, I turned to the beginning and started reading. I really liked it and agree that it’s best to skip the dust jacket summary (because what do they even say, most times, anyway) and dive right in. It’s a relaxing and interesting read. I also forgot I read it and couldn’t remember the name. So it’s kind of forgettable, too. Great read in the depths of dark winter times and sleepless nights.
June 12, 2017
At the very end of the book, Ms. Leroux added a prologue where she explains where she found the characters in this book. I understand that she tried to intertwine the stories in that "we are all related", however it felt like 3 separate stories and she was interested in writing about each of them, so chose all three and tried to link them.
Having said that, her writing is quite good. I just wished she would have developed more of the characters a little fuller. She wrote quite a long chapter, near the end of the book on Simon and Carmen but we didn't have the context of who they were at that point.
Maybe I missed the point but I like a little more cohesion in my literature. Often I would have to go back some paragraphs to see who she was writing about. I'm actually surprised that it was recognized so highly by the Giller Prize committee.
My husband gave me this book as a birthday gift, so I plodded through, but it isn't a book I would recommend anyone else to read. I am sorry Ms. Leroux to have criticized your effort.
Having said that, her writing is quite good. I just wished she would have developed more of the characters a little fuller. She wrote quite a long chapter, near the end of the book on Simon and Carmen but we didn't have the context of who they were at that point.
Maybe I missed the point but I like a little more cohesion in my literature. Often I would have to go back some paragraphs to see who she was writing about. I'm actually surprised that it was recognized so highly by the Giller Prize committee.
My husband gave me this book as a birthday gift, so I plodded through, but it isn't a book I would recommend anyone else to read. I am sorry Ms. Leroux to have criticized your effort.
June 30, 2016
J'ai aimé ça pis pas. (J'ai de la misère à lire de la littérature "blanche" ces temps-ci.) Les trois histoires plus longues étaient très réussies, mais le format où on change d'histoire au moment où ça semble le plus intéressant (et en passant par Angie et Monette, qui m'intéressaient zéro) m'a gossée. Même si ça permet à la fin de faire des liens entre toutes les histoires, ce que j'aime toujours pas mal.
L'écriture était très belle, par contre, et les personnages très bien dessinés. Ariel le Justin Trudeau look-a-like et Marie étaient mes favoris, et la coupure dans l'histoire de Madeleine m'a donné envie de sauter des pages pour savoir ce qu'il se passait après.
L'écriture était très belle, par contre, et les personnages très bien dessinés. Ariel le Justin Trudeau look-a-like et Marie étaient mes favoris, et la coupure dans l'histoire de Madeleine m'a donné envie de sauter des pages pour savoir ce qu'il se passait après.
August 31, 2019
Je me suis laissée bercer par l'écriture intimiste de Catherine Leroux du début à la fin. Des histoires habilement construites qui se croisent et s'entremêlent en douceur ayant pour trame de fond l'identité, une quête sans fin. J'ai adoré.
July 5, 2017
Beautiful use of language and a compelling story of a range of human experiences.
February 27, 2022
Clairement, une de mes autrices préférés! J’adore sa façon de raconter des histoires.
February 8, 2017
This is deep insight--The mysteries left behind when our loved ones die and there is no one to explain. They can be items, notes, anything. But they are unanswered forever. And somehow it is difficult to throw these items away. There are hints, there must be answers. If only we can read them.
"The remainder of the boxes' contents leaves her just as baffled. What is she supposed to do with a hair-straightener from the sixties, a collection of dried out lipstick and hardened blush, a guitar-shaped cookie box adorned with rust spots, and a rabbit's foot dyed pink? The dead woman left behind a strange hodgepodge of objects, the absurdity of things that have survived but which, taken together, never account for the life lived."
Yikes. Next in line. It's scary, and we all deal with it differently.
"Although she had signed up months before Frannie's death, the fact of taking part in an event dubbed the 'Death Race' hardly seems trivial. As she packed her bags, scarcely a week after the burial, she recalled Simon's terse remark the day of the funeral: 'We're next.' She had brushed this off with a joke before heading off to mythical Whitehorse, ready to run as long as necessary to ascertain that she was very much alive and Frannie would not be coming back from the dead."
Love wrong or not reveals the beloved everywhere; love is never wrong (Is love never wrong? No.. but in this instance perhaps it isn't.). Gorgeous writing.
"Spring has returned with, in tow, all the vagaries of weather gone awry. They spend long hours on their porch watching the rolling clouds and the patterns that the wind etches on the tender grasses. The heat rises in whorls on the horizon. What Ariel sees there are white sails, or Marie. For her, the asphalt seems to be littered with gold nuggets, or there is Ariel soaring before her eyes. The world has become a collection of signs through which their love manifests itself, a distant respiration where they can safely love each other. Marie caresses all that is yellow; Ariel embraces the mist that forms on a glass filled with a cold liquid. She plunges her hands into a bag of almonds; he blows softly on the skeletons of dandelions. Their symbols are manifold and so intricate as to render any inventory difficult to compile. The secret code of twins who chose one another; the litany that reiterates the only possible bond."
Great simile. Wonderful image.
"The two women finish their beers without speaking, while the wind gets caught in the red-tinted hair and the cotton skirts. The sky has darkened but Madeleine thinks she can still distinguish the kite, pulling on its leash like a dog, hoping, like every sail in the world, to be allowed at last to fly away for good."
I remember this feeling so well.
"'I was hoping that at least all this shit—the illness, the DNA business—I was hoping it would bring us closer together. That you would learn to speak to me.'"
Insight as Joanna offers some suggestions to Madeleine, to help her cope with her twinned reality.
"'...Just imagine if you could recall the sensation of merging with another human being. In a way, you experienced in the first moments of your existence what everyone spends their whole life desiring.'"
Leroux does an amazing thing. She takes a real event (and she has info on it in at the end of the novel) and spins a tale that is part of a weft of twos twins duos. Gorgeous writing.
"'It appears you have a twin sister with whom you merged in utero. Actually, it's inexact to say "you had a twin sister." It would be more accurate to say, you are twins. Because one did not invade the other. You are two equal and indissociable parts of a whole.'
Madeleine stands up, unable to utter another word. Her heels dig into the sand, and she has the sensation of being aware of them for the first time in her life. She starts weeping.
'You're not the only one,' the doctor adds by way of consolation. 'There are a few, very rare but very real, documented cases. Patients who are in this situation are referred to as chimeras.'
'A chimera,' Madeline mumbles. 'Science was obliged to draw on mythology to describe what I am.'"
Insight, spirituality, how death changes us.
"Carrying the letter from the laboratory, Madeleine tiptoes into the room and kneels down by her son's bed. She is reminded of Micha, an atheist through and through, but who persisted in bowing down at the foot of the bed each night, lowering his head, pressing his hands together, and silentl formulating requests he shared with no one. Madeleine liked to believe that in doing so he was wrapping a sort of magical armour around his little family. After he died she realized he had excluded himself from his petitions."
Isn't this the case for all of us (and imagine how amazing it would have been to discover you were Joni Mitchell's daughter, and yet even that wasn't perfect)? But now, I wish I had discovered my parents were worth knowing, as real people. That's the rub.
"As a little girl Madeleine would have given anything for someone to inform her she was not her parents' daughter. She dreamed that one day a man in a suit would show up at their house and announce an unfortunate error had been made years ago and she had been interchanged with a neighbour's child or, better yet, that she was the daughter of foreign travellers, who would come to retrieve her with tears of joy and take her back to Bavaria or Castile or another place full of castles and ghosts of headless horsemen."
Simon and Carmen at their mother’s death bed. So much about death, family, connection, division… Why is there always synchronicity? Am I just obsessed? In pain? Incapable of seeing others things? Needing to make meaning even as I can’t write meaning, even in circumstances that are different from my own?
"He sinks into his chair and buries his forehead in his fingers. Carmen comes over and places her hand on his shoulder. Frannie's body seems to be slowly vanishing, dissolving amid the urine-soaked sheets. The smell does not bother them; it dissipates in the room, where the walls have retained the effluvia of a thousand deaths, the miasma of bile, fear, sweat, damned breath, and swollen lips, which, at the very end speak nonsense, because the end of a life is never a redemption, because we have died as we have lived.
Absurdly, and untruthfully."
This is lovely.
"'I don't agree,' Marie retorts. 'Love isn't a momentary thing. It's something that has always existed deep inside us and that rises to the surface when we summon it. Like a permanence of being.'"
Great writing... description of a cat.
"...The storm goes quiet just long enough for a misshapen creature to dash across the threshold and plant itself on the makeshift promontory of the coffee table, from which it surveys the premises. Once it stops moving, Marie and Ariel finally manage to examine it and recognize a shape under the layer of mud puddling at this feet. A cat.
'And where have you come from, little fellow?'
It opens wide its huge golden eyes and lets out a meow that says it all. It has come from nowhere. It has never know a litter box, a home, or the teats of a female cat. It rose out of the mud on a stormy evening and ran towards the light, toward the promise of warmth, and will never leave it."
I wish at least that were true for me. Then I would have an excuse. Ah...
"'To reach your goals compromises are unavoidable—you know that.'
'But you don't make compromises.'
'And I never reach my goals.'"
The moon, the moon, the moon, and the magick it inspires..
"...In the mossy woods, among fallen trees, they were a nest of warmth and desire. At some point the moon dropped its chiselled reflection onto the perfectly smooth lake, and all at once Marie rose and dived in, her white body summoning the nocturnal fish and making the luminescent algae dance from the surface all the way down to their hidden roots."
Beautiful.
"...Marie strokes the squashed toy, which has lain hidden under the mattress for nearly two decades, but she does not extract it from its hiding place. When, half-asleep, she finally lets go, she has the fleeting impression of hearing a cloth heart beating through her pillow."
This brings out deep memories, not the same, but my own (and now I can never go back: how hard that is). What wondrous writing that can do this!
"As far back as she can recall, her family has always had malamutes. A hardy, loyal, dignified breed, embodying all that the Leclercs value. Marie buries her nose in the salt-and-pepper pelt; the dog moans blissfully. She has an urge to whisper one or two secrets into the dog's dense coat, or even to shout, but she contents herself with kissing it.
The little room with a sloping ceiling has remained untouched since she left some fifteen years ago. Whenever she visits it, Marie relives her childhood in reverse, starting with the morning she packed her bags, at once terrified and euphoric at the thought of leaving her home town for McGill University, where her life would finally take flight. Then her adolescence streams by, dreary and terrible; she sees herself bent over her schoolbooks, cloistered in the school environment, the one sphere in which she allowed herself a certain lack of moderation, the one place where she could excel without drawing attention to herself. She contemplates the spectral presence of the Lego cities she built with Rachel, and that of the dolls she would create on Sunday afternoons, little papier-mâché figurines to which she poured out her heart when it was brimming over. She stretches out on the bed, wrapped in the particular atmosphere of a room where one has lived long enough to experience boredom, that blend of living dust and dead time."
I love this prose (you can't do it often, but when you do, it's powerful and evocative): the list, the images, the clarity, the expression, the information, the character development. So much is revealed.
"Keeping the tumult that surrounds him at bay, Ariel hangs on for an instant to the bright, hazy image of his wife and lets it dance momentarily above the Ottawa skyline before he opens his eyes again, signs an official letter, forwards an email message, clears his throat, replies to a counterpart, straightens his tie, shakes a hand, finds the right tone, refines an argument, improves his standing in the polls, defends his position, aims higher, qualifies without lying, drives his point home without shouting, bends without breaking."
The moon, always the moon. So important to a magickal wondrous tale.
"Yun puts her suitcase down at the foot of the guest bed and casts her gaze out the window. The enigma moves through the room, as dense and round as the full moon, which tugs at people's hearts and, month after month, ordains the Earth's moods."
Lovely character description. And I love the gesture to old people. I think of old people much more now. Too late?
"The young man gently eases himself out of the tall grass. The fragrance of spring rises together with the scent of leather and gasoline. The car responds smoothly, but the brake pedal's action is a little slow, something he'll have to remember. He touches the tip of his cap by way of goodbye, a salute he reserves exclusively for old people, for the witnesses to a disappearing world. Everything here seems to be on the point of dying. The village road is deserted, except for a cat, except for the fox keeping watch from a distance. The young man presses down on the accelerator and speeds eastward with the windows rolled down. The radio is dead. What a shame. What luck."
Lovely prose.
"...His hands are empty but they could have been carrying a heavy rock. Or a bone."
And so always memories of my own, coincidences of the heart and the pain I now carry. Did I not see this before when it wasn't part of my life?
"The stone that marks the place where the ashes are buried is as smooth as the day her son lifted it out of the sea. One of the last things they did together, as a family. That was before he became no more than a sail on the horizon. Madeleine mechanically runs her hand over the stone and places the daffodils beside it. For five minutes she remains silent with her eyes closed before heading back. She finds nothing to say to Micha on such occasions, which is odd because she talks to him constantly. People who hear her no doubt believe that Madeleine keeps up this conversation with the unseen to ward off her solitude. They are unaware that, even when her husband was alive, she never stopped speaking to him like this. From the very beginning of their marriage she had gotten into the habit of telling him certain things when he was not around."
Thus it BEGINS with one of two.
"(MONETTE AND ANGIE)
The twisting wind wraps itself around Angie's ankles, a ground-level wave that takes her by surprise. The wind, as a rule, does not linger at people's feet. Except the strong, low wind produced by a passing train. As if to trip you up. She looks down to examine her shins, her knock-knees. The children she knows are simply thin, or else they are chubby, plump, fleshy. Angie is nine years old and as gnarled as a crone. She resembles the pin trees growing on mountaintops. The shape of her finger and toes is complicated, and her elbows protrude from the middle of her spindly arms, two black pearls mounted on taut wires. She dreads the day her breasts will appear, convinced as she is that they will emerge, not like the pretty apples flaunted by the girls in junior high, but like two angular bumps, two angry fists pounding their way through her chest.
Inside, Monette is still negotiating with her sandals. Though perfectly capable of putting them on, she takes an inordinate amount of time to fasten the straps because even the slightest misalignment of the Velcro straps is intolerable to her. She attaches them, detaches them, repositions the hook side over the loop side with the concentration of a Tibetan monk, inspects her work, finds it wanting, and starts over. Under the silky rays of the sun, Angie does not lose patience. While waiting for her little sister, she contemplates the languid swaying of the willow, their tree, the biggest one on the street."
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